High School Experience
High school was, up to now, the most influential time of my life. Those four years really shaped me into the person I am today. I went to High School ay Bishop Stang in Dartmouth MA. It was a private school so I feel lucky to have gone there.
As to where I stand academically I feel like my high school did a very good job. One of the many things I actually liked about my high school was that the SAT’s and ACT’s weren't a huge element. They were considered very important but we didn't put a huge emphasis on them. Any work we did do for the SAT wasn't extremely helpful. Math is a big part of the SAT and in my math classes we never did much with it. We had problems assigned in an SAT prep book but we never really went over them or explained how they worked if we got them wrong. When it comes to these tests you can never really prepare. The practice problems I had turned out to be different from the tests so they didn't even help. When it comes to the SAT and ACT school isn't a place to prepare for it and I'm glad mine did not make it the number one priority.
To me, the most important years of my high school career where my junior and senior years. It was in my junior year when I had decided that teaching history was the career path I was going to pursue. In the past it had been something I was considering, but now it was something I knew I wanted to do. The main reasons for that were my history teachers in my junior and senior year. My junior year history teacher was Mrs. Moore, she was a relatively recent college graduate and she made history a lot of fun. We did activities in her class that I would love to teach when I get older. I liked the way she taught the class as it was simple, straight forward, and easy to take in the information. I had told her earlier in the year that I was interested in becoming a teacher so if I ever had questions about the teaching career she would always be happy to talk to me about it. One of the reasons I loved her as a teacher was because at the end of the year she gave me the opportunity to prepare a lesson for the class. It wasn't a real lesson per-say as the seniors had left and there were only two juniors including myself so, it was small, but it gave me a small taste in that area.
My senior year history teacher, Mr. Medeiros got me prepared I think for a college level course of history. His lectures were different than college lectures as he had notes, but he helped in paying close attention to the important information and memorization of that information. That history class was an AP class so we also had to write Document Based Question essays. In this essays we had to analyze a group of about 10-12 short documents and answer a question using that information. While many people found them to be extremely annoying, I actually rather enjoyed them. I don’t have to write any of those now, but we read a lot of documents in my current history class, so having already analyzed documents in the past, it is easier to know what messages and biases they may carry.
Other teachers also had effects on me, though in different ways. When I decided that teaching was the career path I wanted to pursue, I would be sure to study the way my teachers taught me. I would see what worked and what didn't work that well so that when I became a secondary education teacher, I would already have an idea as to what I would like to do and how I would teach the material. For example, I personally liked the idea of having the notes available for the students online. However, that can be problematic so how could I possibly still incorporate that, but also have the students learn the material. I could make the notes a back up to what is learned in class. I wouldn't just read a bunch of words off of a slide, the notes online would be pieces to help kids study for tests. In class however I would cover the material needed, but I would do it in a way that is more discussion based, maybe assign readings and discuss them the next day in class. Those are the kinds of things I would look into and have taken from different teachers to try and make my own little lesson plan.
When I look back on my high school, I see it as a time when I really began to focus on who and what I wanted to be in the future. I don't think I am at that point yet where I feel like I have become the person I want to be, though I do feel like I am at a point where I know what to be.
High school was, up to now, the most influential time of my life. Those four years really shaped me into the person I am today. I went to High School ay Bishop Stang in Dartmouth MA. It was a private school so I feel lucky to have gone there.
As to where I stand academically I feel like my high school did a very good job. One of the many things I actually liked about my high school was that the SAT’s and ACT’s weren't a huge element. They were considered very important but we didn't put a huge emphasis on them. Any work we did do for the SAT wasn't extremely helpful. Math is a big part of the SAT and in my math classes we never did much with it. We had problems assigned in an SAT prep book but we never really went over them or explained how they worked if we got them wrong. When it comes to these tests you can never really prepare. The practice problems I had turned out to be different from the tests so they didn't even help. When it comes to the SAT and ACT school isn't a place to prepare for it and I'm glad mine did not make it the number one priority.
To me, the most important years of my high school career where my junior and senior years. It was in my junior year when I had decided that teaching history was the career path I was going to pursue. In the past it had been something I was considering, but now it was something I knew I wanted to do. The main reasons for that were my history teachers in my junior and senior year. My junior year history teacher was Mrs. Moore, she was a relatively recent college graduate and she made history a lot of fun. We did activities in her class that I would love to teach when I get older. I liked the way she taught the class as it was simple, straight forward, and easy to take in the information. I had told her earlier in the year that I was interested in becoming a teacher so if I ever had questions about the teaching career she would always be happy to talk to me about it. One of the reasons I loved her as a teacher was because at the end of the year she gave me the opportunity to prepare a lesson for the class. It wasn't a real lesson per-say as the seniors had left and there were only two juniors including myself so, it was small, but it gave me a small taste in that area.
My senior year history teacher, Mr. Medeiros got me prepared I think for a college level course of history. His lectures were different than college lectures as he had notes, but he helped in paying close attention to the important information and memorization of that information. That history class was an AP class so we also had to write Document Based Question essays. In this essays we had to analyze a group of about 10-12 short documents and answer a question using that information. While many people found them to be extremely annoying, I actually rather enjoyed them. I don’t have to write any of those now, but we read a lot of documents in my current history class, so having already analyzed documents in the past, it is easier to know what messages and biases they may carry.
Other teachers also had effects on me, though in different ways. When I decided that teaching was the career path I wanted to pursue, I would be sure to study the way my teachers taught me. I would see what worked and what didn't work that well so that when I became a secondary education teacher, I would already have an idea as to what I would like to do and how I would teach the material. For example, I personally liked the idea of having the notes available for the students online. However, that can be problematic so how could I possibly still incorporate that, but also have the students learn the material. I could make the notes a back up to what is learned in class. I wouldn't just read a bunch of words off of a slide, the notes online would be pieces to help kids study for tests. In class however I would cover the material needed, but I would do it in a way that is more discussion based, maybe assign readings and discuss them the next day in class. Those are the kinds of things I would look into and have taken from different teachers to try and make my own little lesson plan.
When I look back on my high school, I see it as a time when I really began to focus on who and what I wanted to be in the future. I don't think I am at that point yet where I feel like I have become the person I want to be, though I do feel like I am at a point where I know what to be.